Apparatus for feeding and rolling workpieces



y 1960 E.- F- w. MOELTZNER ETAL 2,944,450

\ APPARATUS FOR FEEDING AND ROLLING WORKPIECES Filed Jun so. 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTORS I'f/df Fur: M022 Marl/VIR- ATTORNEYS July 12, 1960 E. F. w. MOELTZNER ETI'AL 2,944,450

APPARATUS FOR FEEDING AND ROLLING WORKPIECES Filed June 30; 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORS ATTORNEYS Q QSeFe a -fl Q and rolling work pieces and more specifically to improve ments on the subject matter of 'copending application Serial Number 363,729, filed June 24, 1953, whichcolicerns. a mechanism with 'atran'sfer cylinder passing through" the rolling space between two rolls and havingon its. 7

circumference recesses for receiving work pieces fed from a magazine. The transfer cylinder is driven rotatively,

via a friction drive, by the drive of anop'eratingj shaft.

In'each step by step advanceof the, transfer. cylinder a work piece. ,is transferred to a workin'g position; where it is rolled while the transfer cylinder remains. stationary.

.Upon further advance of the transfer cylinderthe come ice , Patente'dtJuly 12,19 0

2 roll surrounded by the transfer cylinder, two or more rolls of a smaller diameter, said rolls being opposed to the carriersin the locked position of the transfer cylinder, so that the axes of the work pieces lie in the planes passing through the axes of the rolls. In this case the;

rollsurrounded by the transfer cylinder may be formed cylindrically and the .rolls of smaller diameter may be formed with spirally rising surfaces. The optimum output depends upon the length of rolling path necessary and upon the total travel caused by the greater step length. In order to hold this to a minimum it is to: advantage to cause the step length necessary for transferring a plurality of work pieces to pass by at a speed greater than that of the rolls. The total travel can also be reduced by forming the carriers on the transfer cylinder with unequal spaces between the work pieces and arranging each two carriers a smaller distance apart and these pairs a greater distance apart. The step length is reduced by this arrangement. The step length may be shortened still further if a cylindrical, centrally arranged roll withftran'sfer cylinder having equally spaced carriers,

is opposedto a plurality of rolls, preferably profile segment" rolls, with. an equal number offeeding means (magazines). arranged between these rolls. Itis also possible tch-position two work pieces in the transfer cylinder at equal distancesabove and below the plane pletely r'olled work piece is carried, away.aigidlajnew work piece to be rolled is transferred; 'Iih'ejpiroduction of the machinewill be, increased 'by the means of .the main patent. i

Theprimary. pur V vention resides in theprovision of improvements ,over the invention disclosed and claimed in the'iaforesaid application Serial Number 363,729 which increase the ose and objecjt of the. regents rate of production possible" in apparatus of this type.

lnthe apparatus of the'present invention the transfer cylinder receives a plurality of workpiecessimultaneously in each rotative step and, upon further rotation,

transfers them tooperatingp'osition, In this position all transferred workpieces aresupported by the'transfer cylinder, while the cylinder remains stationary, and are rolled simultaneously; In way theproduc'tion. is multiplied.

. Accordingto the invention the mechanismfor carry: ing out the process is constructed .such a manner that thetransfer cylinder, which surrounds one roll and has carriers on its circumference for the work pieces to'be rolled, has a plurality of feedingmeans (magazines) and locking means -corresponding iii spacing to'jthe length passing through aieaxesgortwb 'cylindricalgroll's, when: the transfer cylinderis mlocked position. g

ofadvantage In? order to avoid; loading. troubles. it is to provide lth e feeding Irneans" (magazines) 'with cone trollable escapement means for the work pieces which fre the bottom work; pieces in the feedingfmeans' when the transfer .cylinder islstationary and which,c1os'e .the

feedingmeans during'movement of the cylinder.

Thesubject matteiof "the invention is shown in the drawings in several eiiemplaryembodiments. In the drawings, e w

a Fig. 1- shows a -mechanism operating with one cylindrical roll and two small'rolls having spirally rising surfaces, together vwith'cam control means with a transfer a cylinder having equal divisions,

of the steprequired for-transferring a" plurality'of :work i" pieces. The transfercylinder passes through'a plurality of rolling spacesbetween the rolls. Iftworoiling spaces adjoin the transfer cylinder, the production of thejrnachine is nearly doubled. However, it. is also possible to employ more than two rolling spaces, so that the production of the machine may be further increased. The passage of the increased length of 'travel of the transfer cylinder corresponding to the, increased step length i's of only slight importance in th e whole cycle sincefthis; length can'be .h'eld to 1a minimum or it is possible to Fig. 1a isa view of a part of Fig. l' to an enlarged le: a t I Eig. 2,;is another embodiment similar to Fig. 1, fin which the transfer cyIinderjhas unequal divisions,

showing; details of construction.- j I Figure, 3 is a section taken along line 3-41 of Figure l v -Fig. 4 is. another embodiment with 3 profile segment rolls and j Fig 55.1 .another embodiment [with two cylindrical rolls.

v The rolling tool 1 is surrounded by. the transfercylin- I derZ, which 'has the carriers 3 evenly spacedon its circumference The roll. is; secured on the drive, shaft 4 byjthe keys. The transfer cylinder 'is connected to the index plate 6 havingthe index grooves 7 which are engaged bythe projection 8 of the locking. lever 9 which is mounted for pivotal movement about a fixed a ds by. any suitable means, for example, as shownffin Figure 5.; The lever 9 carries a roller'10 which engages increase the speed of mana er cylinder. The invention is. not confined to the use of llshavin on their circumference profile segments i ising spirallyin accordance with the depth to be rolled (profile segment rolls).

Anadvantageous embodiment of the mechanism is one 'in which the step length ofthetransfer cylinder is greater than the distance between two-successive carriers and an index plate withri/x indexing means is connected to the transfer cylinder, wherdnis the number. of carriers and bc'th'e number of Workpiecesto berolled; snnulcams 12 mounted on'the'control disc 11 to thereby'control the locking lever. The control'disk 11, together with the r0111 rotates in the direction of the-arrow 13 A friction drive is disposed between the roll'and the transfer cylinder and the friction disk thereof is desig-.

nated by 14. The friction drive carries the transfer cylin deralong in the direction of the arrow when 'ther'rind'ex plate is unlocked. Thewoiik pieces ISare conveyed to- V the transfer cylinder by the magazines 1'6 and 17. The

7 Q magazines are so arranged that they are positioned above itwo adjace'nt carriers, 3 in the locked position of' tl e taneously; It is possible to arrange in opposition to the transfer c linder; The work-pieces finitlie magazines' :feeders (not shown). arrange all magazine feeds in such a way that the work and '17 are retained therein by controllable latches 18 i over, the transfer cylinder, in its rotation, is relieved of the weight of the work pieces in the magazine. The rollers 20 and 21 of the latches 18 and 19 lie in different planes and engage simultaneously the recesses 22 and 23 of the control disks 24. The control disks 24 rotate together withthe control disk 11 in the direction of the arrow 13. Both control disks 24 are positioned with respect to the control disk 11 in such a way that the recesses 22 and 23 operate the latches 18 and 19 first so that the magazines 16 and 17 are locked before the index plate 6 is unlatched. After the index plate is again latched the magazines 16 and 17 are reopened so that the next work piece falls from each magazine into the vacant transfer recesses. Such an escapement mechanism is shown in Figure 1a. The latch 18 is mounted for rocking movement about the center of rotation 26. It carries at its lower end the roller 20 which is mounted on the pin 2) and which rolls on one of the control disks 24. The short leg of the latch 18 (19) carries the stopping projection 25. The latch is engaged by the compression spring 27 in opposition to the automatic unlatching force and this spring presses against the right leg 23 of the latch. The latches 18 and 19 are briefly actuated by the recesses 22 and 23 upon rotation of'the control disks 24 which are mounted one behind the other.

The cylindrical roll 1 faces the rolls 30 and 31; these latter are of smaller diameter'and have circumferential surfaces which rise spirally fromthe beginning'32' to the end 32 of the roll segment 32; The drive shafts 33 and 34-- serve to drivethese 'rolls; these shafts are driven, through atransmission (not shown), in the same direction of rotation as the roll 1,.but at higher rotative speeds corresponding to their smaller diameters so that the circumferential speeds of all the rolls are the same.

The blank spaces 35 and 36 are provided on rolls 30 and 31 for changing work pieces. In the locked position of the transfer cylinder 2., these rolls are disposed in opposition to two successive carriers 3, so that the axes of the work pieces 15 and 15", which are in operating position, lie in the planes 30' and 31' passing through the axes of the rolls. a

The embodiment of Figure 2 is distinguished by the fact that the transfer cylinder has unequally spaced car and 4". The roll 1' with its drive is mounted on the slide 53 which is reciprocable in the direction of the arrow, while the roll 1 is journalled in fixed position in the machine frame 59. a The transfer cylinder 2 has recesses 3, which are arranged equidistantly about the circumference. The work pieces 15 are fed from two magazines 16 and 17 into two carriers simultaneously. The control disk 6 has index grooves '7 which are so arranged that the locking lever 9 locks the transfer cylinder when 7 two work pieces are disposed as equidistantly one half W the distance between two carriers.

division above and below the plane 60, passing through the axes of the rolls. The number of carriers 3 on the.

transfer cylinder is double the number of the indexing means 7 on the index plate 6, so that the transfer cylinder, when unlocked, travels over a space equal to double If t is the distance between two carriers the lengthof the step of the transfer cylinder amounts to 2t. The work pieces are retained by latches 18 and 19 during rotation. of the transfer n cylinder.

The locking lever 9,rocks about the axis 60 and is engaged by vthe compression spring 61; the lever is connected to the slide 58 by the connecting rod 62. The latching-pin 63, which engages the annular groove 65 of the connecting rod bymeans of the spring 64, serves for this connection. The'connecting rod is journalled in r'iers 3. Two adjacent carriers have the. smaller spacing a and are arranged in pairs wherein the distance between the adjacent carriers of two successive pairs is b, which is greater than a. The length of the step c is equal to a plus b. The blank spaces 35 and 36' on rolls 30 and 31 are shorter than in the embodiment of Fig. 1, due to I the smaller idle space. The remaining structure of the mechanism is the same as in Fig. 1.

The embodiment shown in Figure 4 has the cylindrical roll 1 centrally arranged on the drive shaft; this roll is surrounded-by the transfer cylinder 2 with the carriers 3.

The carriers are arranged equidistantly on the circum ference of the transfer cylinder. Three profile segment rolls 49, 5t and 51 are provided with three magazines 52, 53 and 54 arranged between the rolls. The ratchet wheel, the control disk and the locking lever are not shown for reasons'of clarity. The length of the step it ,of the transfer cylinder corresponds to the distance between two adjacent carriers. If the drive shafts -4, 55, 56 and 57' are disposed horizontally, the work pieces 15 are advanced from the magazine 54 with the aid of However, it is also possible to pieces fall into the carriers 3 under the influence of gravity, particularly if the drive shafts are arranged vertically.

The embodiments shown in Figs. .1, and 4 employ profile segment rollswhich opposea cylindrical roll and i The connecting rod connected to the bearing block 66 of the bracket 67, whichis secured to the slide 58.- For unlatching, a lever 68 is employed, which .lever strikes the stationary abutment 69 whenthe slide is withdrawn and releases the connecting rod latch. the slide has unlocked the locking lever 9 by withdrawal of the slide, so that the transfer cylinder rotates one step. When the slide, controlled by a timer mechanism, known per se, moves again into working position, the connecting rod 62 is again. latched. The index plate 6 is again locked by the pressure of the spring projectionto engage the succeeding index groove. In this position of,the transfer cylinder, two newly transferred Work pieces are rolled. i j The embodiment shown in-Figure 5 is particularly useful for rollingwork pieces of'small diameter. The rolls are formed generally as thread: g rolls and have a profile corresponding to the'thread to be rolled. Howevenas a matterrof principle, the rolls may also have other profiles; they can be used to roll up to a shoulder, for knurling, fiuting or burnishing. The mechanism can be used on thread rolling machines.

We claim; a 1. Apparatus for performing the/same rolling operation simultaneously. on a plurality of workpieces comprising a plurality of forming rolls; means mounting said rolls to form a'plurality of Work-forming stations spaced a predetermined circumferential distance about the axis of one of said rolls; a transferv cylinder surrounding one of said rolls, said transfer cylinder having. a, plurality of workpiece carriers so circumferentially. spaced as to position one carrier at one. of said work-forming stations when another carrier is positioned atanother work-forming stationya pluralityof workpiece feeding devices for feeding workpieces to said carriers so as to position said workpieces in saidcarricrs in circumferentiallyspaced relation about the axis of said one roll which is surrounded by said transfer cylinder toprovide at least for a leading workpiece and'a trailing workpiece, the number of devices being equal'to the number of work-forming stations and said devices being spaced about the cir- 61, which causes the locking cumference of said one of said rolls in predetermined relationship to the spacing of said work-forming station;

carriers simultaneously to associated ones of said circumferentially spaced work-forming stations and thereafter rolling said workpieces at said stations wherein the leading one of said unformed workpieces is advanced in continuous movement through and beyond the first encountered work-forming station to the last encountered work-forming station and in the succeeding indexing movement that workpiece formed at its work-form- I ing station and similarly fed and formed workpieces are advanced to a work removal station wherein the trailing one of said formed workpieces is advanced through and beyond succeeding work-forming stations to said work removal station. I I

2. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said first mentioned means includes means for bodily moving the other of said rolls to-an inoperative position during indexing of said workpieces to thereby prevent a rolling operation from being performed.

3. Apparatus for performing the same rolling operation simultaneously on a pluralityofworkpieces comprising a plurality of forming rolls; means mounting said rolls to form a plurality of work-forming stations spaced a predetermined circumferential distanceabout the axis of one of said rolls; a transfer cylinder surrounding one of said rolls,'said transfer cylinder having a plurality of workpiece carriers so circumferentially spaced as to position one carrier at one of said work-forming stations when another carrier is positioned at another work-forming station; a plurality of workpiece feeding devices for feeding workpieces to said carriers so as to position said workpieces in said carriers in circumferentially spaced relation about the axis of said one roll which is surrounded by said transfer cylinder to provide at least for a leading workpiece and a trailing workpiece, the number of devices being equal to the number of work-forming stations and said devices being spaced about the circumference of said one of said rolls in predetermined relationship to the spacing of said workforming station; and indexing means operable to periodically advance said transfer cylinder and for controlling the movement of said workpieces comprising means'for controlling said work-feeding devices to feed unformed workpieces to selected ones of said carriers at predetermined intervals, means providing free movement of said workpieces past said rolls during an indexing movement, control means automatically controlling said indexing means and the rotation of said transfer cylinder in apredetermined direction to deliver inoneindexing movement of said transfer cylinder unformed workpieces positioned in said carrierssimultaneouslyto associated ones of said .circumferentially spaced work-forming stations and thereafter rolling said workpieces at said stations wherein the leading one of said unformed'workpieces is advanced in continuous movement through and beyond the first encounteredwork-forming station'to the'last encountered work-forming station and in the succeeding indexing movement that workpiece formed 'at its through and beyond succeeding work-forming stations, to said work removal station and means responsive to said control means for operatively locking said cylinder to dispose at least two workpieces in adjacent carriers at' a circumferential distance equal tothe circumferential spacing between adjacent work-forming stations whereby said two adjacent workpieces are rolled simultaneously.

4. Apparatus for performing the same rolling operation simultaneously on a plurality of workpieces comprising a main cylindrical forming roll; a pair of smaller segmental forming rolls; means mounting said smaller rolls for rotation about fixed axes at points spaced about the circumference of said main roll to provide first and second work-forming stations between said main roll and, said smaller forming rolls; a transfer cylinder surrounding said main roll; means forming a plurality of workpiece carriers on said work transfer cylinder, said l carriers being so circumferentially spaced as to position one carrier at said first work-forming station when another carrier is positioned at said second work-forming station; a pair of workpiece feeding devices for feeding workpieces to said carriers so as to position said workpieces in said carriers in circumferentially spaced relation about the axis of said main roll to provide for a leading workpiece and a trailing workpiece, the spacing between said feeding devices being the same as the spacing between said smaller rolls and the spacing between said carriers; and indexing means operable to periodically advance said transfer cylinder and for controlling the movement of said workpieces comprising means for antomatically controlling. said work-feeding devices to feed unformed workpieces to adjacent ones of said carriers at predetermined intervals;'means providing free movement of said workpieces past said rolls during an indexing movement; control means'for automatically controlwork-forming station and similarly'fed and formed workpieces are advanced' to a work removal station wherein the trailing one of said formed workpieces is advanced lingsaid indexing means and the rotation of said transfer cylinder in a predetermined direction to deliver in one indexing movement of said transfer cylinder unformed workpieces positioned in said carriersv simultaneously to associated ones of said circumferentially spaced work-forming stations and thereafter rolling said workpieces at said stations wherein the leading one'of' said unformed workpieces is advanced in continuous movement through and beyond said second work-forming station and in the succeeding indexing movement the workpieces formed at said work-forming stations are delivered to a work removal station.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the circumferential spacing between the work feeding devices and between adjacent workpiece carriers is equal to the spacing between said work forming stations.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the said carriers are arranged in pairs, the spacing between remote carriers of adjacent pairs being equal to the spacing between adjacent work forming stations.

References Cited in the file of this patent .Great Britain Apr. 12, 

